Matthew Smith (painter)

Sir Matthew Smith, CBE (22 October 1879 – 29 September 1959) was a British painter of nudes, still-life and landscape.

Smith studied under Henri Matisse in Paris and acquired an interest in Fauvism.

He married Gwen Salmond and their relationship broke up when he entered into an affair with Vera Cuningham.

[2] Smith met fellow artist Gwen Salmond in 1907 in Whitby and she became his "greatest mentor".

[4] Smith met fellow artist Vera Cuningham in 1922[6] or 1923 and moved to Paris, where they lived at 6 bis Villa Brune.

[7] The British Museum states that they both exhibited in 1922 at the Société des Artistes Indépendants and at the Amis de Montparnasse.

After having been hospitalised, he returned to active duty in 1918, was made lieutenant, and was posted at the Abbeville prisoner-of-war camp.

The following year he began a relationship with Vera Cuningham and she moved with him to his house in Paris, Villa Brune.

[2] It is said of Smith in The Obstacle Race: The Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Work:Early in the twenties the normal shortcomings of his health allied with the sense of something unfulfilled in his personal life to produce a serious breakdown; and it was not until he found in Vera Cuningham the ideal model for his art that he recovered and, indeed redoubled his ability to work.

[2] In 1944, "The Penguin Modern Painters" paperback series printed an illustrated biography written by Philip Hendy which included his works.